


The Real Breakfast Club

by bigembarrassingheart



Category: The Breakfast Club (1985)
Genre: Brian is mentioned, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Post-Canon, Romance, rated for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 22:35:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20033464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigembarrassingheart/pseuds/bigembarrassingheart
Summary: After the events of the film, Allison and Claire start meeting for breakfast.





	The Real Breakfast Club

**Author's Note:**

> 10 points to whoever can spot all of my inane pop culture references

At four pm, Claire was picked up by her mom and they went home. She didn’t think about the events of the day, just watched TV and tried to put it out of her mind. Her parents were arguing, and for some reason, that was comforting. Back to routine after everything had been shaken up. 

That night, she went to a party, and got drunk, and made out with some boy she didn’t know. She didn’t think about anything. 

On Sunday, she slept in late, then went shopping. She didn’t think about what happened. 

But on Monday, when she arrived at school, a bullet ricocheted through her carefully woven appearances in the form of Allison, sitting alone and reading in the hallway. And for some reason, for reasons even years later she couldn’t fathom, she approached the basketcase, the lonely, picked-on girl all of her friends ignored. 

“Hey, Allison.” She looked up like a deer in headlights. Wow, how pathetic, Claire thought at first. No! You were becoming friends, be nice! was the second.

“Uh, hi?”  
“I, uh, was just wondering, if uh tomorrow you’d uh want to get breakfast? There’s this cool diner on main street.” God, this was embarrassing. Why did it feel like she was asking her on a date? Claire shook the thoughts out of her mind like dandruff onto a drawing. 

“Molly’s Place?” Allison asked, Claire nodded. “Yeah, I know it. Uh, okay? You gonna be up early enough?”

Claire grimaced. “You don’t know me.” she said, trying to be good-natured.  
“Well, is this breakfast meeting not the point of that?”  
“What?”  
“You know, to actually get to know each other?”

Claire laughed nervously. “Uh, yeah. Meet at 7:30?”  
Allison nodded and went back to her book. 

Walking away, Claire felt her cheeks burn. Luckily, the halls were still fairly empty and no one saw her talk to such an outcast. Immediately, she chastised herself for that thought. Wasn’t this the whole point? To look past stereotypes or whatever bullshit Brian wrote in that essay?

But then she saw her beautiful, popular friends, walking down the hallway, and she pushed Allison out of her mind. 

\-----

Allison was worried. She liked Claire, she did, but out of all the kids in Saturday detention, a popular princess was the least likely to want to be friends with her. The whole thing was probably going to end in disaster. But, she also really liked breakfast foods. 

“Hey, Allison!” A voice broke through her thoughts and she looked up to see Andrew. She didn’t say anything.   
“Uh… I was wondering if you’d want to hang out later this week?”

She stood up. “Look, you don’t have to do this.”  
“No, come on, I seriously like you.”  
“No, you don’t! You like the pretty version of me, the version who wears makeup and isn’t a basketcase, or whatever it is you call me behind my back!” 

Andrew stepped backward, his mouth hanging open a little bit.  
“I… I thought you liked me?”  
“I do like you, I guess, you seem pretty okay. But I don’t want to be with someone who only started liking me when I wasn’t myself.” 

He blinked. “Uh, okay, sorry.” They stood there, watching each other, for a moment.  
“Uh, can I have my patch back?”   
“I lost it.”  
“Okay.” 

And that was that. Probably the longest conversation she had ever had at school. Allison walked through the school, through the halls she and four other misunderstood kids ran through two days earlier, past the library she danced in, and out onto the sidewalk. She wanted to buy the song she had danced to. Allison didn’t know what it was called, but she was still thinking about it. 

She kinda felt bad for rejecting Andrew. He was cute enough, nice enough, a good enough kisser. But for all she knew, he was pretending to like her on some sick dare or something. This late in her education she couldn’t risk ‘putting herself out there’. 

So, she spent the rest of the day wandering around town, and rolled home around midnight. After sleeping in her clothes, she woke up and walked to the diner, her stomach a pit of tightly knotted nerves. 

\----

When Allison walked into the diner on Tuesday, Claire realised she was wearing the same clothes as the day before. That sure was embarrassing. On second look though, her dress was pretty cute.

“Where’d you get that dress?” she asked when Allison sat down across from her.  
“Thrift store.”   
“Wow, that’s helpful.” 

Allison laughed, and perused the menu.   
“Why are you talking to me? I thought you were, like, mute.” 

“I only talk to people I like.” 

For the rest of the meal they sat in silence, as Claire thought about those words. She didn’t really think Allison liked her. Sure, maybe they were civil to each other, and Allison let her do her makeup, but they were so different! 

“I like you, too.” Claire mumbled as she pulled out her father’s credit card to pay, and a rare, small smile spread across Allison’s face. 

So that was their routine. Almost every day of the week, until they got too sleepy as the weekend got closer, they met up for a quick breakfast before school. They barely talked - even after that confession Allison was pretty quiet - and Claire never saw her in school. 

“Do you even go to school?” Claire asked one day. Allison paused with a huge spoonful of pancakes halfway to her mouth.  
“Yeah.”  
“Okay, uh, I was just wondering because I never see you around.”  
“Uh, maybe cause you’re always just staring into the vacant eyes of your popular friends?”

“Wow, aren’t you rude as fuck.” Claire said coldly. Allison looked down at her food.  
“Sorry.” she mumbled. Claire sighed. With Allison, that was likely the best anyone would get.   
“It’s okay.” 

Once again, they were silent.  
“You’re right, okay? All my friends, they’re...they’re cool enough, but I don’t know, it kinda feels like we’re coworkers instead of friends.”   
“I get that. And we’re almost done high school, there’s really no point in trying to change now.” 

Claire nodded. For a girl who never went to school, she sure was smart. And on the subject of school, it was getting late.  
“We gotta get to school.” she said, flagging down the waitress for the bill. 

“We don’t have to.” Allison smirked.  
“Come on! And what, end back up in Saturday detention?”

The next thing Claire knew, she and Allison were walking down the street, in the opposite direction from school. 

\----

Allison couldn’t believe she only had to say four words, and now Miss Perfect Claire Standish was skipping school with her. 

“So, what do you want to do?” Claire asked, bouncing on her heels.  
“Wow, you’re so excited. All we’re doing is nothing.”  
“It is exciting! I’ve never skipped before.”

Allison stopped and laughed. “Seriously? Aww, that’s so cute.”   
Claire slapped her good-naturedly on the arm. 

“Hey, let’s go in here.” Allison said as they approached the record store. Inside, the store was dark and mostly empty except for a twenty-year-old kid with a terrible moustache behind the register and a few older guys shopping. 

The walls were covered in posters of everyone from Bowie to the Violent Femmes, and practically every available surface was covered with records piled high. A stereo in the back played the Beatles. 

Claire hesitated behind her as Allison starting flipping through records.  
“Hey, is everything okay?” she asked quietly.  
“Yeah, uh, just are you sure we should be here?” Claire stared at her feet.   
“Whaddaya mean?” Allison asked, picking up a record.  
“Well, just, there’s all these alternative guys, and I mean, you look pretty punk or new wave or whatever it’s called, but like, look at me! My favourite singer is Cyndi Lauper!”

Allison stopped, and grabbed Claire by the shoulders.  
“Fuck. That. Shit. You are cool, and Cyndi Lauper is dope. We are going to hang out, and buy some records, and there’s nothing they can do about it.” 

Claire laughed, and smiled, and it was all okay. And then Claire bought her some records, and things were even better. 

And then they were out of the store and into the warm sunlight outside, and Allison hung back, clutching a bag full of records to her chest, watching Claire. So light on her feet, so pretty in pink, clear in her mind when Allison was waved away like smoke. 

“Hey!” Claire exclaimed, and Allison wanted to look at the smile on her face for the rest of her life.  
“What?” Allison asked, becoming as full of joy as Claire.  
“Let’s go to my house! I wanna hear what music you like!” At that moment, Allison’s heart exploded.   
“What if your parents are home?”  
“They won’t be.” 

Claire led Allison down a few streets, until they came across a nice, two-story suburban house, with a couple of cars and an actual white picket fence. She laughed.

“What?” Claire asked, walking down the manicured lawn and unlocking the door.  
“A picket fence? You’re really Miss America.” Claire didn’t say anything, and just led Allison up the stairs to her bedroom. She was trying not to stare, but it was probably the fanciest house she had ever been in. Not a mansion or anything, but really nice and clean. 

Her bedroom was big and bright, and almost as empty as Allison’s room, except in a more rich-person way than a sad way. 

\----

Claire was regretting skipping school. It had been fun at first, it had been really great, but now they were in her room, and she never had anyone in her room, and there were so many differences between them, and she was feeling something when she looked at Allison. 

“Hey, you recognize this song?” Allison asked, putting on a record, laughing silently, and bouncing around.   
“No, what is it?” Claire started dancing just to share something with Allison.  
“It’s the song we were dancing to on Saturday!” 

“Wow,” she said quietly, slowing to a stop. It had only been a few weeks but that detention already felt like a lifetime ago. 

Allison blinked. “What?”

“I just-” she said, shrugging. “I don’t know. It feels like all that stuff happened to Old Claire, and now I’m . . . well, I feel almost like a different person.”

Allison nodded. “I like New Claire,” she said seriously, and somehow that made Claire grin widely back at her. “I mean, Old Claire was pretty okay, too.” 

Full of smiles, for the next hour, they played the song on repeat while they danced and talked and did the twist and jumped on Claire’s bed, and it was a perfect hour until they heard a noise outside.

“Shit! My mom’s home,” Claire said, turning off the music. “Quick, we’ll climb out the window.”

She climbed up on her desk, opened her window, and with one pink-shoed foot outside, she glanced back to see Allison, eyes wide and slightly smiling. 

“Well, are you coming?” 

\----

They climbed out of the window, and jumped down to the ground, thudding against dirt and flowers. Claire grabbed Allison’s hand and they ran through backyards and side streets, while Allison couldn’t think of anything at all except Claire’s light pink nail polish. 

When they got onto a main road, Claire dropped her hand, and Allison shivered even in the sun. 

“Fuck!” Claire laughed, shaking out her limbs.   
“At least your parents care about what you’re doing.” Allison mumbled, and instantly regretted it.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad, I just feel bad.” Allison said quietly.

Claire opened her mouth and was about to say something when they heard a shout from across the street. 

“Hey! Claire! Looking sexy as usual!” John Bender shouted, running across the road to stand in front of them. Allison immediately shrank away, waiting for Claire’s reaction. 

“What do you want, John?” she asked.  
“Oh, well I was just minding my own business, when I saw you looking good, but for some reason, hanging out with this freak?” 

Allison dug her nails into her hands as Claire and Bender stared at each other.   
“Fuck you.” she whispered. 

“Oh, sorry, what was that?” Bender asked, feigning concern.  
“Fuck. You.” He just laughed. Allison looked over at Claire and felt power flow through her veins.

“I mean it! You’re rude as fuck all of the time, especially to Claire, and you act all high and mighty for someone who makes life hell for everyone around them. Fuck off forever.” Now Allison was on a roll. She started talking again, her voice rising, shaky but emboldened.

“You harass her about her love life, you stick your head under her skirt without her permission, you scream at her for being realistic, yet you think it’s all okay because, what? You think she’s hot, and you’ve got a bad family life? Who gives a fuck? I feel for you on that, okay, I do, I’m sorry your parents are awful, but that doesn’t excuse treating my friend like shit! Claire, today was very fun, and I will see you tomorrow!”

And with that, she strode away, her legs shaking with anxiety but still feeling great. That feeling continued until she got home, and found a note from her mom saying she had to go to Saturday detention for skipping school. 

\----

Allison didn’t see Claire until she slumped into the library at seven am on Saturday. Even at such an early hour, she looked perfect with her halo of red hair, and her unwrinkled pink clothes. They didn’t say anything to each other, Allison just sat down a few rows ahead of her.

“Oh, look who’s back to join us!” Principal Vernon said, busting through the doors. “Would never have pegged you girls as repeat offenders. Anyways, you know the drill. No essay this time, not after the complete garbage that you all turned in last month.” 

For the first half an hour or so, they sat still and quiet. Allison was almost asleep until she heard the scraping of a chair and Claire pulling up next to her.   
“Listen, Allison, I feel like I’m like really angry with you, but I don’t even know why but I don’t want to talk about it, I just want to hang out, okay?” she spit out. Allison couldn’t say anything except nod. 

“Okay, great, because I want to ask you something. What exactly do you think is wrong with Vernon?” Claire asked, smiling.  
“Right? It’s like he gets glee from being an asshole.” 

“You know,” Claire said, dropping her voice to a whisper and eyeing the door, “Last year I went to a Christmas party with my parents, and he was there.”  
“No shit! What did he do?” 

“He was normal to start with, didn’t even say anything to me, but a few glasses of wine in? Hitting on any and every girl, including me!”

Allison gasped. “What a creepy fucker! When he comes back in here, I’m gonna scream at him like I did to Bender.”

The second his name was out of her mouth, Claire turned away, and Allison wanted to scream. Why did she always say the wrong thing? And why was it the wrong thing? 

\----  
Claire felt split down the middle, with this cool, funny, weird, really weird girl on one side, and a cute bad boy who liked her, and her friends on the other side. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, stuck between what would be incredibly easy and what would be incredibly hard. 

For a while, it seemed like she would just accept what was easy, and Allison was making it easy for her, with her yelling and skipping school, but Allison was also making it hard for her, with her occasional smile and insisting she belonged. 

So, sitting next to her, Claire decided to put in some work.   
“Listen, Allison…”  
“I’m sorry.”  
“You don’t have to be.”

For a second, they just stared at each other, nerves bundling in her stomach, but she licked her lips and kept going.  
“I guess…. I just mean I like Bender. Even though everything you said was absolutely true. But I like you too, and to hear your best friend rip into your crush, well, uh, it's hard.” 

“I’m… I’m your best friend?”  
“Of course, silly! Who else am I getting up insanely early to eat breakfast with for?” Claire bit her lip and smiled. 

She stood up, and grabbed Allison’s hand. “Come on, Allison, let’s go exploring.” She led her past the chairs, up the stairs and through the stacks, staring into her dark eyes the whole time. 

“You know, before I knew you, I had no idea you were so cool.” Allison whispered, leaning her head on Claire’s shoulder. Claire could barely breathe.  
“I guess some good things come out of detention.” 

By now, they were sitting next to each other, leaning against a small back wall in the library.  
“Claire,” Allison started, slowly, apprehensively, “Andrew asked me out a few weeks ago.”

“So I guess Bender’s the only classist douchebag among us.” Claire laughed, trying to glimpse Allison’s face out of the corner of her eye.  
“And Brian too! Did he drop out of school? Where’d he go?” she replied with a deep belly laugh. 

“But what about Andrew? Did you say yes?”  
“No… I guess I was just mad he didn’t show any interest in me until you made me pretty.”  
“I’m sorry… I guess I just thought I could help you… you know, come out of your shell. And I guess I just like putting makeup on people.”

“It’s okay, I understand.”  
“And I’m not like Andrew at all.” Claire said, letting the words hang in the air.  
“What do you mean?”  
“I thought you were beautiful even before a makeover.” With this confession floating around her lips, Allison felt it safe to continue.

“And also, I never really even wanted a boyfriend.”  
“Why? I mean, most guys are stupid, but they’re fun.”  
“I don’t know, but I guess knowing you has made me realise why.” Things got soft and quiet, all alone in the library. 

\----

A conversation like this with anyone else would have made Allison want to die, but sitting so close to Claire, all she felt was warmth and safety.  
“What do you mean?” Claire asked, but by the way their bodies were getting closer, she already knew. 

Years later, when Allison would think of her first kiss with Claire, she would hate herself for not remembering every detail, but here in the empty library, with fluorescents shining into her eyes, the whole world went from hazy pain to clear love. 

She kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed her. She opened her eyes even though she knew it wasn’t done just so she could see how beautiful the girl in front of her was. Kissing was always described as a huge event, with fireworks and explosions and barns falling out of the sky. And sure, the realisation of how she felt, looking into Claire’s eyes and finally feeling aligned with the universe, was all of that. But the kiss was quiet, and gentle, and a little awkward, and for some reason, she was starting to cry.

“Hey, hey,” Claire said, pulling apart with concern in her eyes, “What’s wrong?”

Allison wiped her face and tried to smile. “It’s not a big deal, it’s just uh a lot of things in my life don’t feel right but, uh, this does.” Claire smiled, and gently pushed a strand of hair out of Allison’s eyes. 

“Is it right though?”

Hair fell into Allison’s eyes, sticking to her damp cheeks. She didn’t say anything. Once again, she became the weirdo. 

“I just mean, we’re both girls, and we have different lives. You know? I’m the princess, you’re the basketcase. We shouldn’t even be friends, right? And I really like you, okay? I do, but,” Claire took a deep breathe and Allison felt a shifting inside of her heart. “No matter how much we want it, I just don’t think is gonna be some kind of fairytale romance.”

“How can you say something like that?” Allison whispered. “I thought you thought we could all be friends after it? And even if you’re right, can’t we just be happy and ignorant for a little bit?” She stood up, and stumbled away to stare at a wall adorned with a poster urging teenagers not to smoke weed, and let tears slowly fall down her face. 

\----

Claire didn’t know what to do. All of her past relationships had been over before they got to heavy conversations, yet heavy conversations was all she seemed to have with Allison. That, and some really nice kissing. 

She stood up, and touched Allison’s back lightly. “Hey, Allison, I’m sorry.” All of a sudden, she heard the door to the library start to open.

“Vernon!” She whisper-screamed, grabbing Allison’s hand and running down to the desks in the middle of the library, sitting down just as Vernon came into the room. 

“I thought I heard something,” Vernon said, his eyes narrowing. “What’s going on here?”  
“Nothing sir, we’ve just been sitting here, reflecting on our past transgressions.” Claire said. Beside her, she could hear Allison try not to laugh. The principal’s eyes got even more narrow, and he turned and left, mumbling something to himself. 

The second he was gone, Allison burst out laughing, this time crying happy tears. “What a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit!”

It was now Claire’s turn to laugh, almost falling into Allison’s arms. “Oh my god!” she said, wiping her eyes. “You’re so funny.” Spying a slight frown beneath Allison’s smile, she went serious. “But I’m sorry, okay?”

“You’re right,” she continued. “We don’t know what’s going to happen, and I really like you, okay? Like, like like you.” 

“You’re right too. It’s not like we could ever, uh, I don’t know, get crowned prom king and queen.” she stroked Claire’s hair. “Let’s just be cute for a little bit, okay?” 

Claire nodded, and leaned in to kiss Allison, but she held up a hand to stop her. “What’s wrong?”  
“Nothing, it’s just-” Allison started but Claire cut in.  
“Hey, it’s clearly something okay? You don’t have to downplay how you feel.” There was something in Allison’s eyes.

“Um, yeah, well I just think that although obviously we can’t really be too obvious about our relationship, can we be real friends at school? Not just breakfast club friends, like acknowledge each other in front of our, well mostly your, other friends?” 

\----

Allison wished she could just let all the anxiety in her head go, and enjoy being with a beautiful girl who was optimistic and kind and adventurous and was everything she wasn’t. But instead, she was hemming and hawing and worrying when all she wanted to do was kiss her. 

“Hey, I know you said my feelings matter, but I’m just worrying, okay? We have, like, five hours to talk, so let me just kiss you, okay?” Claire nodded, and Allison leaned in to kiss her, and things were right and she was right and all was finally right.


End file.
